Pak Tea House » Entries tagged with "Lahore"
Saving a rocky relationship
By Raza Rumi: The killing of Osama bin Laden is another hurdle to tackle, and we are in a critical moment of another reevaluation of the Pakistan-US relations, just a few months after the close of the Raymond Davis saga. Pakistan-US relations are subject to global scrutiny and elude a definitive assessment due to the nature of a partnership scarred by history, competing interests and unflattering public opinion. Recent surveys such as the BBC World Service Poll … Read entire article »
Social media and Pakistan – prospects and possibilities
By Raza Rumi In a picture taken on May 27, 2010 Pakistani IT professionals Omer Zaheer (L) and Arslan Chaudhry browse their newly created networking site in Lahore. Pakistanis outraged with Facebook over “blasphemous” caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed have created a spin off networking site that they dream can connect the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims. A group of six young IT professionals from Lahore, the cultural and entertainment capital of Pakistan, launched www.millatfacebook.com for Muslims to interact online and protest against blasphemy. – AFP Photo When I started to blog, almost by accident, a few Pakistani bloggers were found in cyberspace. Within half a decade the number has multiplied beyond belief. From the senior writers to young students, blogging is now an avenue that allows forunfettered self-expression and also puts the mostly … Read entire article »
Whither Labour Rights
[First published in The Friday Times] By Yasser Latif Hamdani The 18th Amendment to the constitution was welcomed by all who want to see Pakistan a truly federal, progressive and democratic state where the federating units and the centre are balanced in terms of power and rights. Pakistan vests residuary powers in constituent units but the net thrown by the federation – federal and concurrent legislative lists – was so wide that residuary powers amounted to very little. The abolition of the concurrent list devolves real powers to the provinces. … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, Labour
Changing National Security State – Workers Party seminar calls for a new paradigm
Lahore, 20th April 2011 – Speakers at a special seminar on the ‘National Security State’ organized on Wednesday at the Kissan Hall on Mozang Road urged a broad consensus of all political and social forces on the need to reorient the priorities of the Pakistani state away from ‘national security’ to ‘human security’ and warned that religious radicalization, ethnic polarization and imperialist influence in Pakistan would all intensify if this transformation does not take place. The seminar was organized by the Worker’s Party Pakistan (WPP) and featured the participation of a large number of political workers, students, trade unionists and intellectuals. Speaking on the occasion scholar-activist Dr. Aasim Sajjad said that since the creation of the country, the permanent institutions of the state – the military and bureaucracy – have maintained … Read entire article »
Filed under: liberal Pakistan, state
Unpacking the HEC debate
An amended, rationalised HEC needs to stay in place By Raza Rumi The 18th Amendment approved by the Parliament in 2010 signified a new era in Pakistan’s troubled federalism. Given our turbulent constitutional history, the new governance arrangements approved by all parties and federating units settled for a leaner centre and addressed long-standing demands of provincial autonomy. But the implementation of this amendment has been slower than expected, largely for reasons of capacity both at the federal and provincial levels. Despite the constraints, the Implementation Commission has delivered fairly well. … Read entire article »
Balochistan: Pushed to the wall
By Raza Rumi There must be something terribly wrong with the state of Pakistan that in its largest province, state schools no longer recite the national anthem and are giving up on the Pakistani flag. Tragic, that such alarming reports flashed in the national newspapers and on the internet are a subject of little debate and introspection across the country. Either that nobody really cares as to what happens to the tribals in the southwest of Pakistan, or that there is soft censorship at play. Such is the level of self-censorship on the issue of Balochistan that the ongoing insurgency finds scant mention in the otherwise, hysterical electronic media of Pakistan. True, there are brave exceptions in the public arena, but the eerie silence on Balochistan is disturbing for any Pakistani … Read entire article »
Filed under: baluchistan
The land of his dreams
By Raza Rumi Professor Javaid Iqbal Syed’s memoir traverses the political and the personal, the mundane and the sublime, and weaves a narrative that reflects the decades of his life and times in Pakistan. Syed came from a Punjabi family which had settled in Balochistan. Through his sheer dedication he rose to the rank of the Vice Chancellor of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) during the mid 1990s. However, his tale is not restricted to his career or professional achievements, but is in fact a record of his inner journeys through the murky and inhospitable terrain known as Pakistan. It just so happens that I have known Professor Syed since I was a child and he has, for better or for worse, been an integral part of my life. Syed and my father … Read entire article »
Filed under: Lahore
The land of his dreams
Professor Javaid Iqbal Syed’s memoir traverses the political and the personal, the mundane and the sublime, and weaves a narrative that reflects the decades of his life and times in Pakistan. Syed came from a Punjabi family which had settled in Balochistan. Through his sheer dedication he rose to the rank of the Vice Chancellor of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) during the mid 1990s. However, his tale is not restricted to his career or professional achievements, but is in fact a record of his inner journeys through the murky and inhospitable terrain known as Pakistan. It just so happens that I have known Professor Syed since I was a child and he has, for better or for worse, been an integral part of my life. Syed and my father grew up … Read entire article »
Filed under: Lahore
Two Faiz celebrations in Lahore
Ammar Aziz has sent this exclusive piece for Pak Tea House on the recent centennial celebrations held for the great poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz. We are posting this without prejudice as debate on such important public concerns is vital. However, the views expressed here are not necessarily those of the PTH team. We would welcome rebuttals on this space. Admn Lahore’s Mall road was as crowded as always. Behind the modern age vehicles – coming violently from the both sides of the road- and amongst the old silent trees, I saw him, walking very slowly on a footpath. The old man was holding a little red flag. Those ragged dusty clothes, lengthy gray hair, wrinkled mystic face and small piece of scarlet; there … Read entire article »
Filed under: Activism, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Literature, Pakistan, poetry, Urdu
The Pak US conundrum
Saad Hafiz Charles de Gaulle once said “You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination”. Well, the “stupid” Americans spearheaded the liberation of France, allowed the Free French Army to lead the march into Paris contributing to De Gaulle being declared a national hero eventually becoming President of France. Similarly, the Americans have pumped over $ 45 billion in direct military and economic aid to Pakistan since Independence, $ 21 billion since 9/11 alone in effect making a huge contribution to stabilizing an impoverished nation. In return almost daily, Pakistani leaders like Imran Khan and Syed Munawar Hasan among others, accuse the United States at minimum of murder, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan, public policy, USA
The question of immunity
By Asad Jamal In a rush to comment and pronounce judgment in the case of deaths of two Pakistani nationals at the hands of a US national, Raymond Allen Davis, commentators have ignored some important aspects of relevant international law and practice, and Pakistan’s obligations. To make Raymond Davis’ case appear weak regarding his entitlement to diplomatic immunity, questions have been raised, among others, as to his ‘true’ status and ‘real’ identity. The US State Department’s earlier refusal to identify the man soon after the incident has been cited in support of such questions. Further, issues have also been raised as to the ‘real’ reasons for Raymond Davis’ presence in a congested area of Mozang in Lahore with ‘sophisticated equipment’ and an ‘illegal’ high tech gun used in the incident from a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
The light of tears
This article, first published in the Himal is a tribute from a grandson to his grandfather and from a Pakistani to Pakistan’s most talented phenomenon. 2011 is the Faiz Year. By Ali Madeeh Hashmi The life and poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz Karey na jag mein alaa-o tau shair kis masraf Karey na sheher mein jal thal tau chasm-enam kyaa hai What good is a verse that does not light up the world? What good a tearful eye if it does not wash away the city? – Faiz Ahmed Faiz Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pakistan’s unofficial poet laureate, was born almost exactly a hundred years ago, on 13 February 1911, in Sialkot, the hometown he shared with Pakistan’s national poet, ‘Allama’ Muhammad Iqbal. Faiz passed away in 1984, aged 73, in Lahore, the city he came to call home during the last … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
REFLECTIONS POST-MAY 28
An exclusive post by Aamenah Yusafzai for PTH The recent attacks on two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore demonstrate the urgent need to strengthen the rights of Pakistani minorities. Pakistan is not a country inhabited by Muslims only, or even Sunni Muslims. This is represented by the green and white of the Pakistani flag, a fact often taken for granted. The three quarter green represents the majority Muslim population, while the one quarter white represents non-Muslim minorities. The preamble to the Constitution provides that provisions be made for “minorities freely to profess and practice their religion and develop their cultures.” Furthermore, it provides for guarantees to “fundamental rights, including equality of status, of opportunity and before law, social, economic and political justice, and freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship and association, subject … Read entire article »
Filed under: Activism
Stop Lahore's Talibanisation
Raza Rumi The worst has happened. Data Darbar, which defined the contours of peaceful Islam for a millennium, has been desecrated in Lahore. Its markets have been attacked and its minorities live in fear after the Ahmadi massacre. Last year, the petrified traders of Lahore’s Hall Road burnt objectionable CDs after receiving threats from extremists. A year later, low-intensity blasts took place in the crowded Hall Road — a market for electronics and kosher and non-kosher DVDs. This week, two internet cafes were targeted in densely populated areas of Lahore and some time back Peeru’s was also bombed. Reports have suggested that the cafes had received threats from unidentifiable numbers asking them to stop their businesses as they were turning into hubs of ‘immoral activities’. Just because no one died there, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Lahore, Pakistan, public policy, Punjab, Taliban, violence
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